If you find this post, chances are that you’ve been directed to it by my email. If you’ve stumbled upon it, feel free to contribute. Work proceeds apace on blogativ – the new banner is ready to be deployed: There’s just one element on this banner which is incomplete: the catchphrase. If you look closely [...]

The “EU Actors: how to interact with European capitals?” conference, organised by Fondation Euractiv at the European Parliament this November, will focus on … Many of the participants will be blogging here before, during and after the conference. Their posts, photos and videos are all tagged Nov8. Whether you are going to the event or [...]

The PlanD conference in Brussels this December will bring together some 450 participants in six PlanD projects to discuss the way forward in EU Communications. Many of the participants – members of civil society, media and political experts and more – will be blogging here before, during and after the conference. There will be posts, [...]

I gave out a little sigh of satisfaction after a long period of concern.  Germany has decided to put the Maglev train to real use. According to Spiegel international, by 2014 the electromagnetic train will link the Munich airport to the city.  After years and years of “testing” and that infamous accident in 2006 when [...]

Our final aim is to have Blogactiv in at least ten languages, as implied by the language banner across the top of the screen. For launch, we aim to have three working languages (EN, FR, DE) operational – i.e., the site’s supporting files and launch content (e.g., introductions to some of the top sections) will [...]

Use this blog to note and share problems encountered during ‘alpha testing’ with Blogactiv’s technical support. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re taking a look under the bonnet of Blogactiv during its ‘alpha’, pre-launch testing phase. Welcome in. The site has a number of known issues that are scheduled to be fixed during [...]

Earlier this year the EU Institutions agreed a redraft of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, formerly known as the Television Without Frontiers Directive, which allows: … for the disputed practice of product placement – brand marketeers paying for their products being visibly used and displayed in made-for-TV productions. The Commission argues that “recent figures from [...]

The term ‘Information Society’ cropped up in the 1990s. The European Commission obviously thought it was important, creating a department for it in the late 1990s and launching a portal on it, ostensibly covering all relevant EC work, a few years later. But what is it? When pressed, the UN defines the Information Society on [...]

While in Belgium the debate rages on about how to manage one state with two groups with so many rifts between them, I find myself thinking about a case of 3 languages and 3 cultures who share one land – the region known as South Tyrol or (for the Italians) Bolzano-Bolzen. Although they are two [...]

After many years of enjoying the NoComment segment on the European newschannel Euronews, NOCOMMENT has finally gone digital. Since the beginning of this year I’ve been an avid subscriber to the NoComment podcast: a 1 to 2 minute daily segment of NoComment which also appears on the tv channel. This segment is not only something [...]

In the winter of 1912 in a place called Lawrence, Massachusetts, 20,000 textile workers went on a long bitter strike.  They worked long hours and lived in the worst conditions imaginable.  As immigrants from all over Europe, and mostly women and children, the workers were outraged that their already meager wages would be cut.  In [...]